I wanted to share some of our meals and flower arranging (not in chronological order!). We had a freestyle arranging workshop, where the attendees found vintage vases in their cottages and arranged in them after a demo from me, walking through my philosophy for bringing an arrangement together. After that, we created low bowl compositions in Portuguese terra cotta with compostable mechanics. We gathered our centerpieces and linens together  for a community created table styling in our outdoor floral studio. We had a lovely meal by Marta Toscano Rico featuring seasonal carrots, pumpkin, rosemary crackers, soup, and veggie tart.

On Saturday morning, we created large arrangements in Portuguese terra cotta pots that were traditionally used to cook in fires or to cure olives. The students get to take home all of these special vases made in Portugal. 

Afterwards, we did little photo shoots in each attendees cottage so that we could capture their large arrangements on camera. The cottages are so charming and provide beautiful surfaces and textures to style the arrangements. The houses also tend to be darker and cooler, so they are perfect for keeping the arrangements fresh during the week and the provide us relief from the sun and heat as well.

We had another gorgeous picnic style meal created by Marta, and that evening we were joined by the lovely Catarina Seixas who ventured to Mafra to guide is through a couple of workshops! 

Catarina fired up the stone oven in the kitchen early one morning. It was a bit too hot to go foraging but a few of us gathered wild fennel to add to our flower pizzas!  We each made our own individual pizzas, cooked in the fire oven, and topped them with flowers from Fernanda Botelho’s garden.

We added a wild green sauce, from Catarina’s book. She guided us through the process with a wonderful mix of herbs and toasted hazelnuts and Portuguese cheeses.

And soon I’ll share our days in Lisbon and Sintra as well as our herbal workshop with Catarina! More soon! If you’d like to participate in a retreat, we have just 2 spots left for next year! Click for details and booking.